It has been a while since I’ve written anything about sports on this blog, as a matter of fact, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything at all on this blog, but that’s not really the point here. If you’ve followed this blog before you know it happens quite frequently where I go into long hiatuses followed by frequent, random bursts of words. Anyway, let’s get back to sports (those words may have told you to close the window if you couldn’t care less about sports – lol). Then again this post isn’t about any specific sport, or team, it’s just about being a fan. Being a fan is hard, or maybe stressful is a better word. When a new season begins, expectations are high. It’s tough to sleep when your team struggles early on. When the dust settles things. become clear as do your expectations for your team, and you might even be able to sleep a little better. But no matter how high or low these expectations are, letdown/stress/frustration is always right around the corner. That might sound like a pessimistic way to look at things, but think about it. Only one team finishes the season as the champion. Every other team “failed”. Even the champion didn’t just coast through the season not having caused any stress for their fans. There are ups and downs to every season for every team. That’s something all fans realize and deal with each year, but it’s the years where our teams try to convince us that our expectations should be higher than what they are. Prime example — the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals (yes, we all knew this was coming back to one of my favorite teams). They entered the season with questions all over the diamond, but they managed to hang around for half of the year. The second half came, and they slowly declined to a position where everyone thought they would be. Meanwhile, the fans (aka me) understood that this year wasn’t their year. I was okay with that since my expectations were not that great to begin with. The Cardinals had a lot of issues, and they were finally catching up to them. Fair enough; we all knew this was their fate, or so we thought. I’d go to bed quietly at night thinking about football and worrying more about my fantasy baseball team than the actual one I followed. The results of the games didn’t really matter to me anymore because the expectations were now nonexistent.

But wait a second…Atlanta collpased, and STL played out of their asses and snuck into the playoffs. We thought, “Wow, that was impressive.” What-if’s began to creep into our heads until we realized STL had to beat the Philadelphia Phillies (the best team in all of a baseball I might add) three games before they could do it to us. That wasn’t going to happen was the consensus. Once again, zero expectations. Anything that happens now is just icing on the cake was the mentality. Five games later, STL prevailed by somehow managing to take the series from the Phillies. Holy shit – maybe this really isn’t a fluke!! Now it is starting all over again, expectations are through the roof. The Cardinals didn’t make it this far by chance; they actually have a good baseball team. They can win now and could play in the World Series.

Shit! Now I’m back to sleepless night, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is exactly why we root for our teams in the first place.

I recently returned from my first trip to New York City. I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get out there. I wasn’t sure what to expect upon arriving because everything I read said something different. I had been researching things to do, places to go, etc. but it seems like everything I read was suddenly lost once I landed. And it is vacation so everything you plan on doing takes a backseat to just relaxing and enjoying the scenery. I will say I think I did a fine job of combining the two: doing just enough to see what I thought was necessary and relaxing as one should on vacation. I don’t think NYC has any ONE thing you need to see (Central Park may be the closest). I say that because we’ve all seen everything on TV and movies. It essentially feels the same when you look at the monuments in person as well. The thing about NYC is seeing how crazy it is on a daily basis. That’s the one thing I took away from visiting. There’s simply no way to imagine how nuts the traffic, sidewalks, stores, and restaurants all are. Just being in NYC feels different than other places. I would imagine you could go to New York City a dozen times and experience new places each time. There are an overwhelmingly number of places to go. To cut to the chase with this post, I would simply recommend going there with no expectations and just soak it all in. It’s not often you’re going to be in a place with 8 million people. You don’t need to go on all of the tours or see everything your first time; it’s impossible anyway. Walk out of your hotel and just start walking. You’ll find interesting shops, buildings, restaurants around every corner. And when you need to rest, sit outside for lunch, grab a drink, and just watch the hustle bustle that’s out there with you.

It’s pretty simple, long distance relationships are hard. This is a given, but the big question is if the situation is temporary, are they good or bad for relationships? I would argue for better. As much as anyone says otherwise relationships develop into a routine. That isn’t meant to sound like a bad thing, I promise. It’s just that we tend to do a lot of the same things over and over with our partners; things we are comfortable doing and enjoying together. We stop noticing certain things that once drew us in and begin taking these things for granted. Then all of a sudden we realize that the other person is going away and that things are going to change for a while. We aren’t going to be able to continue the same routine we’ve been sticking to over the last few days/months/years. We are forced to take a step back and look at the relationship in a different way. We do not get to see and touch our partner the way we’re used to so we have to find other ways to get this connection in which inevitably makes us focus back on the little things. We start to notice the small habits that we miss about the person we’ve been taking for granted. Maybe it’s brushing your teeth together before bed, sitting on the couch with one person’s legs on the other, or maybe it’s just coming home and giving/getting a hug and a kiss. These are the things we need to try and do in different ways so we feel the same connection. This may be a simple letter they don’t know is coming, an email with a link that reminded you of them, or taking 5-10 minutes out at the same time each day just to say hello. Long distance relationships force the people involved to think outside of the box to find ways to recreate the emotions they have when they’re together. They don’t have to cause constant sadness and loneliness. Essentially, they should improve your communication as a couple and reassure you why you’re together in the first place.